HARD
by rainbow7887
Summary: As Astoria was the only one who seemed to have gotten close enough to Draco to be able to say she knew him better than his own parents, she seemed to be the likely candidate for his commitment in marriage. Meanwhile, Hermione and Ron, the seemingly perfect couple, were having a little complications, as Hermione was not really ready to commit. Read to find out!


**H.A.R.D.  
Prologue:  
Draco Malfoy:**

The trail, namely my father, my mother and my trail, took a surprising turn, for the better or the worse, I could not say, but my mother would definitely say it took a turn for the better. It had developed a surprising turn, as, of all the people to stand up for us, Harry Potter did. Well, he so kindly pointed out to the judge that if I had not disarmed Dumbledore before Snape killed him, the elder wand would definitely recognise Voldemort as its owner during the final duel, and, therefore, the war would be lost. My mother, he said, was the only reason he was alive to kill Voldemort as she, out of her love for me, chose to tell Voldemort that Harry Potter was dead, while he was, all the while, alive.

However, we were still considered criminals, and therefore had to be punished, no matter how little the punishment may be. My mother and I got off lightly, me being forced to go back to Hogwarts to complete my seventh year and denied the use of my wand except in lessons, my mother, confined to Malfoy Manor, denied access to her Gringotts account and her wand, for two years. Of course, my father did not get any levy. Not that I thought he should. He was sentenced to a Dementor's Kiss. After that, we were "escorted" back to Malfoy Manor (do note the quotation marks).

Just because I did not declare to the whole world that I had always hated my father, it does not mean I never hated him. I hated him not for who he is, but for what he did, Including controlling my life since I was three. I am not exaggerating. Even Mother does not know. Everyone, including Dumbledore, believed my act of "my father is my hero". Huh.

I was expecting the owl when it came and landed on the perch and delivered the letter telling me what to buy for school and what the schedule was, as well as the changes, etc. I did not really read it. It was lucky that I already had my textbooks, and there was only about three weeks left before school starts. I was already devoting most of my time to my studies, resolving that, even if I could not do anything more, I would still do my best to beat Granger, grades-wise.

Of course, she would probably do about as good as me, still, but I had to try, at least, for my own pride if nothing else. I know, for one, that Blaise Zabini, Astoria Greengrass and Josephine Greengrass are going back to retake their seventh year with me. Ravenclaw, probably Luna and some others, and Hufflepuff, maybe Hannah, I do not know. Not that I care. But I do know that the Golden Trio will be there, plus their "trustworthy" sidekick, Neville, and some other Gryffindors, I guess. I just hope that they would leave me alone, and just ignore me. It's not like I wanted to pick fights with them.

**Hermione Granger:**

Ever since I had received the owl, like, half an hour ago, even though it seemed like an eternity, I could not wait for school to start! I was just wondering what would happen to our careers since we had not been able to take our N.E.W.T., and now the answer had came! We were invited to go back to retake our seventh year, seeing as to how we missed it due to the war and the fact that we had skipped the whole of it to go searching for horcruxes, and, while both Ron and Harry looked positively glum (though Harry's mood was probably due to his being forced to speak up for the Malfoys earlier today; he has not been extremely cheerful since) at the prospect. Oh well, they're boys; we can not expect too much of them!

After some talk about going back to school for the seventh year, our conversation, inevitably, turned to the Malfoys' trail. Unsurprisingly, Ron was the one who brought up the topic, given that he despised the guts of Draco Malfoy. While I was telling him about why he should seriously consider paying more attention in class, he suddenly seemed to remember something. Cutting through my speech, he asked Harry, rather loudly, "How did the trail go, Harry?"

Of course, that caught the attention of all the Weasleys and the guests (i.e. Kingsley Shacklebolt). Harry blushed slightly at the attention focused on him, then replied, "Oh, as well as you could say..."

"Well? As in, did all of them get sent to Azkaban or something like that?" Ron interrupted.

"Ron, you know it is rude to interrupt people!" Molly Weasley chided him. She noticed that even Kingsley was interested in what Harry had to say.

"Oh, well, mum," Ron mumbled, his ears turning slightly pink.

"You may continue, Harry," Kingsley prompted.

"Well, Lucius was sent to Azkaban and was suppose to have the Dementor's Kiss on some date I do not remember..." Here he was cut off again, this time by the cheering of everyone in the room, except the few very serious ones, like me, Kingsley and Harry.

When the cheering has died down, George asked, all too eagerly, "What about the ferret and his mother? How did they react? To Lucius' punishment and theirs?"

Harry hesitated slightly, then replied, "Well, Narcissa seemed upset enough when Lucius was sentenced, he was the first, but the ferret... strangely enough, he did not seem affected in the least. In fact, if I had not heard him boast about his father all the time in Hogwarts, I could have sworn that he looked glad." Here, everyone was looking thoughtful. Harry continued, "Narcissa and her son were not sent to Azkaban, though..."

Here, he was drowned out by the loud and disbelieving "What?"s from the Weasley family. Harry was looking slightly flustered now. "You mean they were not punished?" Ron all but yelled.

"They were... but not Azkaban, just confined to the Malfoy Mansion, for Narcissa, without access to her wand and her Gringotts account for two years, and, for the ferret, to Hogwarts, without access to his wand except during classes and his Gringotts account , for one year."

"Only?" The question was asked by every person present.

Harry winced slightly, before mumbling, "Yeah..."

Everyone went to their groups and started discussing. I went straight to Harry and basically screamed at him, "Are you sure you did not hear wrongly?! How could M- THAT FERRET get away with one year confined to Hogwarts only! He deserve so much more than that, probably locked inside Azkaban to rot forever is not enough, even! He-" If Ron had not drowned my words, I would have continued ranting, but, as it happens, Ron was thinking along the same, so I shut up, still fuming, not at Harry, but still. "All those years how could he get away with such a light sentence! You spoke as a witness why did you not condemn him! Some friend you are!..." He went on and on like a freight train until Mrs. Weasley joined in the yelling, telling him to "shut up as someone wants to hold a civil conversation here!" Only then, the three of us realised that almost everyone else was staring at us.

"Um... Sorry..." Ron muttered, then he continued cursing the Malfoys under his breathe.

I looked at the table, then told Harry, "I did not mean to shout, scratch that, scream at you, It's not your fault, you just did what you had to." Harry needed that. He was already all deflated. At my words, he looked up and smiled wryly.

"Between you and me, I actually felt sorry for the ferret, and I believed that we could give him a second chance, because, after all... he isn't as at fault as his father... and Narcissa, she did not deserve anything, she did what she did because she loved her son dearly, and because she was forced to do all of her husband's biddings, even if she did not want to, due to a... certain... enchantment." Harry whispered, so that Ron would not hear.

"Oh..."I thought about something I overheard Draco say.

_"Really, just tell what would you do, I mean it!" Draco! I thought. I hid behind a pillar as, sure enough, Draco and Astoria walked by. Astoria... well, she is much better than that Pansy._

_"Well, if I was in that position, I can't do anything, I will be bound by that old law and enchantment of marriage to abide by everything my husband wants! Precisely why given the choice I would never..." They were too far away to be heard._

"How did you know?" I asked.

"I did my research, of course!" Harry snapped. As an afterthought, he added, "Sorry."

We both remained in thoughtful silence for a while after that. I do not know what was going through Harry's mind, but I do know what was going through mine. And, for some reason, they were about the times where I overhear, or spied Draco without him realising.

I did not know why, but all those times, especially when he was alone, he seemed...more human, somehow. Less like a stone sculpture that only knew how to sneer and smirk. In fact, he even looked sort of nice. Maybe that was because he had troubles in his life, too... why am I thinking this?! I should be hating his guts for the years he spent tormenting me for not being born a pureblood. I should be preparing hexes and curses to use on him when school starts.

What is wrong with me?

**Astoria Greengrass:**

This is stupid, and I knew it, even if I would not admit it. I know that my parents were dead, but I just did not want to admit it to myself. For that, I wrote at least a dozen letters to Daphne asking her about our parents, about her and about Kerina Parkinson, Pansy's thirteenth cousin three times removed, who we adopted.

I know that Daphne is busy, but she could at least have replied ONE of my letters, right? At least, just to assure me. My parents are purebloods, but they did not do anything to make them deserve to die! They were nice, caring people who encouraged Daphne to come out of her shell when she was young after she was teased consistently for three years in school, they guided her along the way, let her have her choice. When I turned out to be very sick and in need of expensive medical care that our family were not able to fully support, they actually went to borrow money to save me. When Josephine was found to be anorexia, our parents were there for her, always, and they cured her, they were actually like the sun and the moon to her.

Even if we no longer need them, they were still someone we can fall back on when we are lonely. Like Draco, I guess. He was always there for me, too. Josephine told me that I should stay away from him, because he was not good influence, due to his being "bias".

Nobody ever truly understood him, and I would not say that I have the honour of being the one and only to understand him. I can only say I know him better than anyone else, even his own parents. He is not someone who gets tired of new things. He is not a playboy, it was never him who dumped his girlfriend, it was always the girlfriend who dumped him for some "hot" guy. Draco does not show it, but I had seen that, despite all he showed people, he was actually pretty lonely and only wanted friends he could trust, friends that could be as loyal to him as he was to them. Of course, there is also the fact that he does not, and never did, like his father. At least, as far as I know, all the boasting about his father that he had done were just for show.

Back to the packing and everything else, honestly, I could have gone by a lot better without Kiras' help. She is nice to me, and was really sincere about helping, but, somehow, she just keeps on messing things up. That was probably because she was clumsy. At least all I have left to be packed was my school books for the new year.

**Ronald Weasley:**

I am just plain jealous. How come Hermione can happen to be so happy about going to school, even if only for one more year, while the rest of us can't? Suddenly, time at home couldn't have slowed down enough. Then Harry told us about the Malfoys' trail. I honestly couldn't believe my ears that that stupid, stinking, ferret had managed to get off with one year, and not even in Azkaban! That was when I lost it and started to see red. I am not mad at Harry, he is my best mate, after all, and it really was not his fault, but I wanted to blame someone for this unbelievable turn of events, and Harry, being one of the witnesses helping the Malfoys, became my target. I released my anger by yelling myself hoarse, making him the scapegoat for the incredibly bad news of the Malfoys being released so easily.

I just forgot that he was sort of forced to do this, out of obligations to be nice, and I just lost my temper for no reason. Worse still, I did not even remember what I had screamed at Harry, the words just came rolling out. I guess I really am a hothead. It sucked, finding him looking so depressed after I came back to my own senses. I wanted to apologise, but had a hard time coming up with words. The best I managed was "Sorry..." I was cursing under my breath (probably in gibberish, as I did not really keep track of what I was saying), keeping my anger to myself for now, given that mum obviously would not appreciate another public display of hatred. Hermione had already done her part, I could see. There was no denying that I was falling hard for Hermione, that I had been since the end of the war, and she was having the hots for me, too. Speaking of which, I really should start planning our dates for whenever we would have time...


End file.
